Of the many products Island Leaf Commodities sells or is a seller mandate for, GMO commodities count as some of the most contentious. The GMO (sometimes called "GM") products that Island Leaf offers are mainly corn and soybeans. While most clients request non-GMO corn and soybeans, we occasionally receive a request for the GMO form of that commodity. However, many agricultural commodities potentially fall under the GMO umbrella—these include the oilseeds mentioned above as well as wheat, sorghum, every edible oil type, beet sugar, vegetables, and fruits. GMO truly has incredibly broad applicability.
We find it astounding that, in an industry where traders, brokers, and buyers are constantly engaged in a race to the bottom to attain the lowest-possible price, most of them never request GMO commodities, which always sell at a discount when compared to non-GMO commodities.
Thus, it's paramount to discern the differences between GMO and non-GMO crops. Why do the vast majority of buyers prefer non-GMO commodities to GMO commodities?
And as always, in true Island Leaf style, we'll introduce the historical implications of GMO crops and commodities and how non-GMO crops and commodities became prevalent.
The World Before GMO Commodities
Over 12,000 years ago, humans began changing how they collected the food they consumed. Instead of simply plucking fruits and vegetables from the wild, early humans began taking seeds from wild plants, sowing them in controlled environments, and reaping higher-calorie-yield harvests. This change became known as the agricultural revolution.
One of the agricultural revolution's major characteristics was the human manipulation of crop size. During the agricultural revolution, humans selectively bred the flowering bodies that produced larger-than-found-in-nature-fruit-bearing seeds. Manipulating crop output in this rudimentary way allowed humans to yield a larger mass of crops in a specific area than nature would have allowed; it also produced more calories per plant.
For thousands of years, humans continually utilized this crop-yielding methodology. While selective breeding changed the harvested crops' physical characteristics, this rudimentary genetic-manipulation method served as a precursor to GMO methodology that occurs so frequently today.
Laying the Groundwork for GMO Technology: DNA Research
To fully understand how genetic-modifying organisms became such a prevalent force, we must understand how genetic science came about.
Humanity laid the groundwork for GMO crop potential during the late 1800s when Swiss scientist Fredrich Miescher discovered DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Although Miescher didn't understand DNA's role as the mechanism for a cell's control center, his discovery opened the floodgates for a cascade of DNA revelations that transformed the landscape of modern science over the next 100 years.
Throughout the 20th century, scientists in the burgeoning field of genetics contributed astounding volumes of DNA research and discoveries to the world. Most of these discoveries had groundbreaking implications for developing technologies that gave rise to GMO products.
While all DNA-related discoveries influenced GMO food development, Dr. Herbert Beyer's 1973 innovation allowed for the rapid development of GMO foods. Dr. Beyer and his team brought forth the idea that people could create new pieces of DNA in one organism using enzymes from another. Thus, scientists could manipulate a cell's DNA by either cutting away or adding to the series of DNA-chain-comprising links. Manipulating an organism's cell DNA profoundly affects how that organism appears and functions. To say Beyer's discovery was a game-changer is a major understatement; basically, Beyer's discovery is more akin to finding and utilizing the 4th dimension for interstellar travel.
Recognizing his discovery's commercial potential, Beyer co-founded the world's first biotechnology company: Genentech. Genentech focused on developing therapies and drugs for human well-being, like the first drug synthesized from DNA: Humulin, better known as synthetic insulin, used by millions of people today.
While Genentech and Beyer played a critical role in developing modern-medical science, their discoveries also influenced the creation of GMO food. But before Humulin even hit the market, GMO technology would have to overcome an ordeal by fire: a US Supreme Court hearing.
Using Beyer's slice-and-add-DNA-altering methodology, a science team working for General Electric (GE) engineered a petroleum-devouring bacterium, which the team aimed to use for cleaning up oil spills. However, when they applied for a patent, a legal case erupted over the legality of being able to patent a living organism. This case, known as Diamond v. Chakrabarty, made its way up to the Supreme Court, which in 1980 ruled in favor of the GE team. The resulting precedent allowed for companies to patent living organisms. Now, with companies able to engineer, patent, and mass-produce DNA-altering microorganisms, the GMO Food Era had unofficially begun.
Enter GMO Foods
Shortly after Diamond v. Chakrabarty, the US government realized the need to regulate this groundbreaking GMO technology. So, in the early 1980s, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began a collaborative effort to develop standards and regulations for the emerging GMO industry. In 1986, these three government agencies developed a policy for regulating GMO products; they called it The Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology. Its main goal was to ensure GMO product safety for humans, animals, and the environment. Its effectiveness hinged on each newly-invented GMO product passing scrutiny and meeting several standards.
Scientists, who began researching and developing the gene-manipulating effects of microorganisms on plant DNA, delved deeply into this new craft's possible applications. Those working in the agriculture industry wanted to create more resilient crops through genetic manipulation. These resilient crops would have longer shelf lives, pest and drought resistance, and immunity against pesticides.
By the late 1980s, scientists working at a bioengineering company called Calgene had made serious progress in genetically modifying food. The actual food in question was a tomato, which the scientists called the "Flavr Savr."
The World's First Genetically Modified Food
Up until the Flavr Savr, tomato mass marketing had proven a very tedious endeavor. This was because farmers needed to harvest tomatoes before they had fully ripened. After all, fully ripened tomatoes softened and decomposed quite rapidly, resulting in a diminished shelf-life. Furthermore, because farmers harvested tomatoes early in the tomato life-cycle, the fruits appeared green (a problem producers solved by spaying the tomatoes with ethylene gas to turn them red) and tasted bland. Thus, Flavr Savr-creating scientists went on a mission to overcome challenges posed by tomato farming: they wanted to preserve tomato shape, color, and taste.
Calgene scientists developed a gene and injected it into the first Flavr Savr tomatoes. This new gene canceled out the part of the tomato's DNA responsible for the natural decomposition process. The new gene allowed the tomatoes to turn red while still on the vine, yet not wilt. Because Flavr Savr tomatoes remained on their vines for a ripening-conducive timespan, they developed an almost fresh-from-the-farm tomato flavor. The USDA, FDA, and EPA found the Flavr Savr did not pose human health or environmental risks, and thus approved it for sale to the public. In late May of 1994, Flavr Savr tomatoes began sprouting up in the produce sections of a few California-based grocers.
While the public generally accepted the Flavr Savr, the company itself struggled with profitability. By 1997, Monsanto, the slightly controversial big-ag company that produces Roundup, the most popular weed killer globally, acquired Calgene.
From the late 1990s until today, Monsanto has released an array of GMO products, mainly seeds for corn, cotton, canola, wheat, sorghum, and soybeans. Monsanto GMO seeds' defining feature is immunity to Roundup or other Monsanto-made chemicals. This immunity allows farmers to saturate their crops in chemicals which eradicate any neighboring pest: be it weed, bacteria, or insect. However, high-level use of these pesticides is not without risk, as we will explain in June's blog.
Several companies, including Monsanto, Agrium, American Vanguard, and others, produce GMO seeds. In the United States alone, GMO seeds produced 94% of all cultivated soybeans, 94% of all cultivated cotton, 92% of all cultivated corn, and over 99% of all cultivated sugar beets. A considerable majority of US-food producers—like General Mills, Coca-Cola, and Heinz, to name a tiny fraction—use GMO crops for their products.
A century's worth of DNA discoveries, followed by Diamond V. Chakrabarty and the inundation of GMO research and development applied to crops penultimately resulted in Flavr Savr and the following bulk of GMO seeds. In the United States, it's almost impossible to avoid GMO food. Other countries, however, have completely banned the cultivation or sale of GMO crops. Why do some countries ban GMO cultivation? What is the status of GMO regulation in other regions of the globe?
Issues with GMO Foods and Products
GMOs and the European Union
A common misconception exists amongst many people that the European Union has banned the import of all GMO products. On the contrary, the EU has strict regulations, but each year, many GMO products flow into EU countries.
It's important to distinguish between the cultivation and consumption of GMO products. For example, the EU allows the importation of only one GMO seed for cultivation: a certain Monsanto corn seed. However, several EU countries, including Germany, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, and Greece, have banned this seed and its subsequent cultivation. Farmers mainly in Spain and Portugal use this particular GMO corn seed.
But, all EU countries import GMO crops, such as soybean meal and corn, to use for animal feed. Meat from animals that consumed GMO feed, however, must be labeled.
Currently, a debate within the EU rages about whether or not to allow more GMO crops for cultivation. Proponents advocate that GMO seeds can produce higher crop yields and exhibit impressive resiliency against climate change. On the other hand, opponents contend that some GMO crops encourage the overuse of pesticides, result in unwanted natural-plant mutations, endanger pollinators like bees, and possess a Pandora's Box of potential unknown hazards.
GMOs in Latin America
Considerable GMO crop cultivation occurs in Latin America, notably Brazil and Argentina. In fact, ten Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Honduras, and Uruguay, account for 42% of global GMO crop cultivation.
Only Peru, Venezuela, and Ecuador currently ban GMO cultivation for reasons similar to those held by EU GMO cultivation opponents. However, these three countries rely on GMO crop imports to feed not only livestock, but also people.
GMOs in Africa
In Africa, GMO regulatory framework varies widely. A few countries, such as South Africa, Egypt, and Burkina Faso, have already developed and implemented GMO regulations. South Africa, however, is the only country to allow GMO corn cultivation for human consumption. That having been said, many countries are beginning to experiment with cultivating GMO cotton, indicating a possible transition to the cultivation of at least some GMO crops.
GMOs in Australia and New Zealand
Australia introduced GMO regulations in 2001 and currently allows for the cultivation and import of GMO crops. On the other hand, Australia's neighbor, New Zealand, strictly forbids the cultivation of any GMO crops and approaches even gene editing with extreme skepticism. Therefore, for any gene-edited product to enter the New Zealand market, its benefits must extensively outweigh its risks.
GMOs in Asia
India, the world's largest cotton producer, currently uses GMO cottonseed for the vast majority of its cotton crop. China, another major cotton producer, embraces GMO technology in not just its cotton crops but also in tobacco and papaya. However, the Chinese government is still working on a comprehensive regulatory framework.
Other countries in Asia, including Pakistan, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, allow for some GMO seed cultivation as well as GMO crop importation. Taiwan does not allow for any GMO seed cultivation, but does allow the importation of GMO crops for animal feed and human food production. South Korea goes a bit further and bars GMO seed cultivation and the importation of GMO products.
Conclusion
Humanity has come a long way from the selective-breeding agricultural practices of 12,000 years ago. With today's massive selection of GMO seeds, humans can manipulate crops to achieve many ends—sometimes, in the case of Roundup-resistant crops, the ends might prove counterproductive.
While there are many opportunities for GMO crops in the future, many hurdles remain. Thus, for June's blog, we'll discuss some of these opportunities and review current risks and lawsuits that GMO crop producers face today.
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